I was fascinated by Sunday’s New York Times article, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” in which writer Clive Thompson examines the increasing use of social media like Facebook and Twitter. Guilty as charged — it seems the more I use them, the more I rely on them.

The piece looks back at Facebook’s decision to introduce the “News Feed” tool, which initially created a firestorm from users who felt that constant updates about their activities on Facebook was an intrusion. But then, just as suddenly, the tide turned.

In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive. Why?

Thompson’s piece notes that scientists have a name for this kind of nonstop online contact: “ambient awareness.”

It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Facebook is no longer alone in offering this sort of interaction online. In the last year, there has been a boom in tools for “microblogging”: posting frequent tiny updates on what you’re doing.

Twitter, of course, is the premiere site for microblogging, where more than 2 million users provide brief updates about themselves, their work, their daily lives, sometimes on a minute-by-minute basis.

The Times article also notes that in 1998, the anthropologist Robin Dunbar argued that every human being has a limit on the number of people he or she can personally know at any one time.  Dunbar estimated that our maximum number of connections would average 150, which is now known as the “Dunbar number.”

So, Thompson asks, are people who use Facebook and Twitter increasing their Dunbar number, because they can keep track of more people? Try adding the number of contacts you have on Facebook and Twitter, as Thompson did for his article. He had 301 contacts on both sites, more than double the Dunbar number.

Check out the Times piece and think about your expanding world for a few minutes.

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A lesson for your classes this week — the power of the Internet during a crisis or catastrophe.  The latest example of how the Web joins in to get vital information out is the Gustav Information Center, a wiki created on Ning by Andy Carvin. This wiki, which I joined (see my widget at the bottom of my sidebar), is providing news updates, weather maps, photos, forums and videos. Teams of people are working on getting the word out to families, pet owners and others on a minute-by-minute basis.

It would be a great class lesson to examine the online efforts of individuals and groups to get the message out instantaneously during events like hurricanes, tornados, natural disasters or large-scale violence.

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Back To School Challenge will allow up to 100,000 teachers and librarians to earn a free gold-level PBwiki account, which usually costs about $250. Other prizes include a $1,000 gift certificate for purchasing school supplies, Lego educational products, and games.

The Partner Program for Education allows districts and associations to offer free PBwiki gold accounts to members.

“With schools and libraries feeling the pinch of the slowing economy, PBwiki wants to make sure educators can still afford the tools they need to make 2008-2009 the year of collaborative learning,” said PBwiki CEO Jim Groff in a statement released this week. “Giving away 100,000 premium wikis lets us help out and spread wiki-based collaboration to an even wider audience.”

Both programs are open now through Oct. 31. Go for it!

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Two incidents recently took place in Westchester County, NY, schools, where I live, that are pretty universal cautionary tales. Both, naturally, involved students and their use of the Internet.

In the Ardsley School District, located in southern Westchester, a member of the Board of Education recently resigned after vaguely threatening and insulting UStream videos were apparently posted by her son for all the world to see. The postings, and the young man’s apparent history of less-than-stellar behavior, set off a firestorm in the suburb that could have used a referee or at least a public relations spokesperson.

Ardsley Middle School was evacuated in the midst of state testing after several students reported that a website had posted a message titled “the-plot-to-bomb-ardsley.” According to police, the same student responsible for the lovely posting allegedly made threats earlier about the school and a female classmate in a Ustream video.

The police chief called the web posting “innuendo,” but more than 120 parents showed up at a public meeting to protest the initial decision not to remove the student until all the claims had been investigated by police. That was enough to persuade school officials to place the 14-year-old “in an alternative setting” for the rest of the school year.
No charges were filed, and police said there was no overt threat to students’ safety. School officials have not said whether the boy will be allowed back into the school in September, but his mother, the school board member, resigned once the smoke had cleared in the community.

In tony Briarcliff Manor last week, the usual pomp and circumstance of high school commencement took a turn for the bizarre (shades of MTV’s “Jackass”) when a graduateliterally dropped his pants and mooned his fellow grads and onlookers, did a 180 on the stage and mooned the dignitaries assembled there, then accepted his diploma from a shocked high school principal.

The District later took the diploma back, issued a harshly worded statement to the press, then filed charges against the student — disorderly conduct and exposure of a person. And in 10 seconds flat, the video was airing on YouTube. As of this evening, it had been seen 5,700 times.

Both of these incidents emphasize the power — good or bad — of the Internet. Shortly after the Ardsley Middle School was evacuated, I went on Ustream and looked for the video that had allegedly been posted by the offender. It had obviously been taken down, but there was a somewhat disturbing video of the young man, obviously watching something on his computer as the videocamera was running. He was typing, responding, and vaguely laughing. He looked almost like he’d spent years there. He looked like he needed some fresh air and a friend other than his laptop.

The Briarcliff student, on the other hand, looked like a high schooler who’d spent years waiting to stick to the school for which he obviously felt little fondness.

There are no easy answers and there’s no playbook for these incidents. They’re just cautionary tales. All caught on videotape.